The H-Town Boys formed about four years ago when a group of 7-year-old boys playing youth baseball in Hartselle wanted to help cancer patients and survivors. One of the H-Town Boys, Clay Burns, son of Elizabeth G’s restaurant manager Lisa Burns, is now 11 years old and in the fifth grade at Crestline Elementary. He and the rest of the H-Town Boys plan to help the community again by holding a fundraiser for their Relay for Life team Tuesday, Feb. 12 at Elizabeth G’s.

Lisa Burns said her mother–in-law, Cathy King, died from lung cancer in July 2008. Going through the experience of losing someone to cancer impacted her entire family, Burns said, and it was around the time of King’s death that Clay’s baseball teammates decided they had to do something to help.

“It’s grown every year,” Burns said. “It started the first year with them selling suckers. Each child wants to do a little something.”

This past fall, the H-Town Boys took part in a “Boobing” fundraiser to increase breast cancer awareness. The team decorated bras and hung them on doors with a note explaining the person “boobed” could “boob it forward” by paying $10 and suggesting the next person.

Now, the boys are partnering with Elizabeth G’s in hosting a Mardi Gras-themed fundraiser from 6-8 p.m Feb. 12, also Fat Tuesday. The restaurant will add Cajun items such as gumbo, red beans and rice and beignets to the menu. The H-Town Boys will be special waiters during the fundraiser, and all of the given gratuity will go to Relay for Life.

Elizabeth G’s owner Brenda Stout, whose husband is a survivor of melanoma cancer, also recently lost a dear friend, Michelle Burks, to ovarian cancer. Stout said she and Burks met through another friend at a Relay for Life event three years ago.

“Our passion is Relay for Life,” Stout said. “We are not just a restaurant. We want to be a part of the community. What’s important to one is important to all of us.”

Relay for Life is an organized community fundraising walk that goes through the night, benefiting the American Cancer Society. This year’s Hartselle Relay for Life, set for April 26 and 27 at J.P. Cain Stadium, is themed “Ropin’ A Cure.”

Elizabeth G’s is on Nance Ford Road in Hartselle. The restaurant is open from 10 a.m. until 6:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays, and from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. Fridays. Elizabeth G’s also caters and offers “Take and Bake” dishes to go.